


The Long Kiss Goodnight (and Other Cliche Action Movies About Memory Loss)

by Paycheckgurl



Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: (probably), Amnesia, Angst, Comfort Food, Emotional Hurt, Future Fic, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Medical Inaccuracies, Memory Loss, Post-Season/Series 11, Post-Series, Slow Burn, everyone feels a feel, some physical hurt, the bots feel a feel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-03-02 21:31:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13326759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paycheckgurl/pseuds/Paycheckgurl
Summary: Joel Robinson wakes up in a hospital bed. The fact he's no longer on the Satellite of Love might be the least confusing thing about what's going on.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am not a doctor nor do I play one TV, so I'm going to go ahead and assume every medical procedure and practice mentioned in this story is anywhere from slightly to completely inaccurate.

Joel Robinson opened his eyes was greeted was confusion. His vision was blurry and he didn’t recognize which part of the Satellite of Love he was on. The lighting was just a little bit too off to be the bridge, and he was lying in a small bed. Not his own bed in his cabin, he couldn’t feel the familiar indent of his shape in the mattress. The blankets didn’t have a comfortable fluff to them that could only come from being well loved. The smell was sterile. Very sterile. And not the kind of sterile a ship in geostationary orbit usually was.

He looked forward. There was a blurry shape of a man he didn’t recognize that had just taken his hand.

“Joel?” asked the man carefully. 

Joel tried to process this, his mind not quite understanding where he was. So that’s what he led with. 

“Where am I...Where’s Doctor Forrester?” 

“Shh...you’re okay. You’re okay. You’re in the...wait. Did you just say  _ Dr. Forrester _ ?” 

Another figure suddenly appeared dressed all in one color. They got close enough for Joel to make out a blob of silver and black around their neck which might have been a stethoscope or a weird necklace. He wasn’t sure which. They handed Joel what felt like a pair of glasses from the bedside table but they felt wrong and unfamiliar to the touch, like everything was now. He put them on anyway. His vision came back into view, but his confusion didn’t go away.

“Joel,” asked the man. “Do you know who I am?” 

“Uh...no.” 

The figure that had handed Joel the glasses, a doctor or nurse wearing mauve scrubs, was now ushering the man standing over his bedside away. The man let out a choked cry of Joel’s name and resisted a bit. A another nurse seemed to materialize from somewhere and helped the first usher him towards the doorway. 

In the doorway was another man. He was exceptionally tall and dressed in what looked like a Gizmonic issue jumpsuit, a yellow one. Joel tried to remember which rank yellow signified, but at this point his brain was having trouble processing just the scene in front of him. 

Crow and Tom Servo were standing with the man in yellow. His bots. Whatever was going on, however he had ended up here, his bots were here. Joel let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He couldn’t see Gypsum or Cambot, but maybe they were just outside of view. The man in yellow was large enough that even Gypsum could hide behind him. He let himself breathe again. The bots were okay. Whatever was going on the bots were okay. 

Whoever the tall man was, the bots seemed to trust him. Tommy burrowed himself in the man’s chest, and Crow’s small, delicate, claw hand was clutching the man’s very large hand. When the first man, the one from Joel’s bedside, reached the doorway with the nurses Crow lunged forward like he was trying to get in the room himself. But the bearded man, still very gently, held him back. The nurses were to talking to the first man in hushed tones, and a third figure in a white lab coat had appeared talking to him as well. Crow then practically launched himself at the man from his bedside, taking him into a desperate hug. That...Crow wouldn’t do that unless he was scared. Really scared. And who were these people that his bots were trusting so much anyways?

The man in the yellow took the other man into a hug as well, carefully maneuvering around Tom who was still snuggled to his chest. All four were embracing each other now, along with a fifth addition, a robot Joel hadn’t seen. It was...was that his Cambot? The casing was wholly unfamiliar, but the bot was clearly a camera at any rate, with a theater-light-like set up hiding a lens. Cambot. It had to be Cambot. But how and when did Cambot look like...

While trying to watch all of this Joel had failed to notice there was now a doctor in a white lab coat next to his bed. While he was focused on watching the bots she must have made her way over. 

The doctor smiled. Joel tried to smile back but wasn’t sure if he actually managed. The only expression that could have possibly been on his usually relaxed face right now was one of pure confusion. Maybe a bit of pain. His head hurt. 

The doctor again smiled patiently. She put a finger in front of Joel’s face and he attempted to follow it. 

“Can you tell me your name?” she asked. 

Joel took a moment just to process the question. He tried to look back over her to the doorway, but the two men and his bots were gone, likely taken back to some kind of waiting room? Joel head was still pounding. 

“Joel Robinson,” he answered finally. His head hurt. It really hurt. He rubbed his temples unsuccessfully. “Am I...this a hospital right?” 

The doctor nodded. “Yes.” 

Joel blinked. “How did I end up here? What happened to The Satellite of Love?” 

The doctor frowned a bit at that question. Instead of answering she asked one of her own. 

“What’s today’s date?” 

Joel blinked. “Oh gee I’m not sure of the exact day to be honest with you, but it should be September 1993? The 18th-ish?” 

The doctor didn’t say anything, instead just wrote that down. 

“Who’s the president?”

“Um...Bush’s term should be over soon, right?”

“Do you mean...George  _ H  _ W Bush?”

“Is there another one?” 

The doctor just frowned. Frowned deeply. 

“What’s the last thing you remember Mr. Robinson?” 

Joel blinked, searching for the answer. “I...I think it was working on an invention for the invention exchange. The uh, the Backtalk thing. It’s going to be a backwards memo machine.” 

What happened after that he had no idea. 

The doctor wrote down his answer furiously. 

“What year were you born?”

“1960.”

“And how old are you now?”

Joel told her and the frown on the doctor's face grew. 

“What’s your mom’s name?” 

Joel answered. And then supplied his father’s name. He hesitated a bit when asked about kids, but told the doctor about his bots, brimming with parental pride despite the pounding of his head. As he talked about them the doctor’s expression flickered between emotionlessly professional and very subtly annoyed, but somehow also attempting to be reassuring. 

“Can you tell me who that is?” She asked, gesturing across the room.

The man who had been at his bedside earlier had apparently been let back in the room during his exchange with the Doctor, and was sitting patiently in a chair in the rooms far corner. Either he had been quiet, or Joel was so focused on answering these easy questions that he hadn’t noticed him. 

Joel studied the man. He had dirty blonde hair, and was maybe a bit taller than he was. His face was familiar, but Joel couldn’t quite place it. It could just be one of those faces. Slap a beard on the guy and he looks like Torgo. Dye his hair black and he looks like Morrissey. Maybe a bit of Jack Perkins in there. Yeah. One of those faces. Still, the man’s blue eyes looked expectantly at Joel from the chair. 

Joel shook his head. “I dunno.”

The doctor took this all down, while the man in the corner winced and seemed to stare at the floor, as if he was trying to hide some other reaction. 

“Alright. My name is Dr. Kent. Your uh, visitor,” said the doctor carefully, “will stay in the room with you. Is that okay? If you’ll be more comfortable alone that will be okay too. ”

“Can I see my bots, ma’am?” asked Joel. “I think I saw them just now outside the room and I want them here with me.” 

The doctor’s expression looked strained, but she managed a patient, if condescending, smile. “Only one visitor at a time right now. Once we’re done here you can see them quickly, but one at a time.” 

Joel nodded, realizing he hadn’t quite answered the earlier question about the other man. “Um who is that over there anyways?” 

The other man now just looked hurt. As if Joel had just physically punched him. 

“It’s me...Mike.” 

That didn’t jog Joel’s memory. At all. 

“I can...I can go if…” 

Joel probably should have sent him away. He had no idea who this guy was and there was clearly a big piece of something he wasn’t getting. He wasn’t on the satellite, was presumably on Earth, his bots were scared, and the Doctor was treating him with kid gloves, not telling what was wrong just yet. But the man was clearly concerned about him, and earlier his bots seemed to trust him completely. So Joel just nodded despite his reservations. “Uh yeah. You can stay uh, Mike was it?” 

The man wrung his hands. “Yeah.”

“Do I have your permission to share medical information with your immediate family?”

“Yeah I guess...but aside from my bots I really don’t have anyone left alive…”

“Do I have your permission to share information with Mike, specifically?”

Joel was confused. “Why would you...sure?”

He was definitely missing something.

She asked some questions about Joel’s pain level (just the head ache, but it was a killer headache), before explaining what was wrong. 

“You were in an accident, and you’re experiencing some memory loss, Joel,” she explained. 

“Memory loss?” he repeated back. 

What wasn’t he remembering? His visitor in the hospital room, Mike, who was close enough to be a medical confidant apparently? The other man in the yellow? Cambot’s new casing? Was he supposed to remember this stuff? 

The doctor smiled at him sympathetically, any possible trace of the slightly annoyed look from earlier fading away. “We think you have a form of retrograde amnesia where you’re not remembering a good deal of time from before your accident. We’re going to have to work on getting you back up to speed as part of your recovery process. You may never fully remember your missing time, or you might. What’s important now is figuring out how you can cope with what you’re missing. But before we do any of that we have to work on making sure you’re comfortable. 

We’re also going to be running some CAT scans and some more cognitive tests over the next few days. You’re going to be bed bound while we keep you under observation, and check on your injuries.” 

Joel didn’t respond. He wasn’t even sure how to respond to that. 

“It’s been a stressful day for you, so we’ll start most of this tomorrow. I’m going to be working with you along with my colleague Dr. Singer. If you need anything while you’re here don’t be afraid to push that button on your bedside table, okay?”

The doctor demonstrated carefully. Joel felt a little irritable because he remembered clearly how to do this from the last time he was in the hospital as a kid to get his tonsils out. And if the Satellite of Love had taught him anything, it was how to push a button. But he bit his tongue. He was generally pretty good at disguising annoyance or distress under his laid back demeanor. 

The doctor asked him a few more basic questions about his memories, before finally letting him see Crow. Mike excused himself once the doctor left, and he could see the doctor chatting with him in the hallway again.

 

Crow plopped himself down on the chair directly next to the bed. Joel’s hand was quickly grabbed and was being squeezed tightly by the little robot. 

“Joel?” asked Crow carefully. 

“Yeah Crow. I’m here. The doctor said I’m having some trouble with my memories but it’s all alright.”

Crow made a sobbing noise. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again! You promised you’d never leave me again and you almost...you almost…di...”

Crow’s beak wobbled. Joel looked at him incredulously.  _ Leave him again _ . What the heck did that mean? 

Crow took a moment, still squeezing his hand. 

“Sorry. I’m...I’m really glad you’re okay and not dea...dead or anything like that...” 

Joel absentmindedly removed Crow’s netting and carefully stroked the top of the robot’s head. “Hey Crow, it’s alright. It’s alright. I’m okay see? It’s okay. We’re all okay.”

He stayed just petting the bot’s head for a minute before continuing.

“So my memories are a little hazy right now apparently? Do you want to maybe tell me about what’s been going on with you lately to catch me up?” 

Crow noticeably calmed down a bit after that, launching telling Joel all about his latest screenplays. Joel listened intently. Usually Crow’s plays were...well after a point you kind of had to tune them out. But just hearing Crow talk was comforting. Comforting except for…

“Honey,” Joel cut him off. “Did you change your bowling pin?”

Crow’s voice sounded similar enough. He might not have even caught the change it if not for the fact that he was so used to the sound of him. But there was a little something there…

“Oh yeah that,” said Crow. “I actually changed it twice. The second time my voice was actually really different than my first voice. I really like this one, it’s a lot like my original voice but with a bit of the edge of my second voice thrown in there. Do you like it? You said you liked it...well before...”

Joel really had no point of comparison beyond what Crow’s original voice sounded like to him. And it was just now occurring him to him that the doctor hadn’t told him how much time he was missing, because for Crow to need to change the voice wiring in his bowling pin not once, but twice, it had to have been a significant amount of time. But he nodded carefully. 

“It suits you.” 

“Oh Servo’s voice changed again too. He’s still all singy and stuff, and it’s just a little less baritone.” 

“Huh.” 

Joel’s head hurt too much to do the math on how long Servo’s voice box had on his last diagnostic of the bots. But it should have been a while. A long while. 

“And Gyps’ voice is all midwestern and feminine now.” 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah she really likes it. But  _ my _ voice is still the best one.” 

Crow kept babbling for a bit after that, until Mike appeared and tapped Crow on the shoulder to tell him his time was up. Joel couldn’t help but feel a little angry at the man for that. Sure, the guy was probably just acting on orders from the doctor, but he didn’t want Crow to leave. Not right now. He wasn’t sure if Mike caught on to what he was feeling, but the guy tried putting his hand on Joel’s arm in a reassuring manner. Joel flinched. 

“Right...I’m about to send Servo in. Sorry, the doc was really strict about 15 minutes for each of them. Uh, Gypsum won’t be in until later tonight, so you can see her tomorrow.” 

Yeah, Joel felt bitter about his time being limited. He usually wasn’t one to hold grudges but his desire to just have the bots here with him as long he could, the headache, and his growing confusion over what exactly it was he didn’t know anymore wasn’t helping. He said his goodbye to Crow, who didn’t shy away from Joel’s hug like he normally might have tried to, gave his hand another long squeeze, and promised to see him tomorrow. The bot then grabbed onto Mike’s hand as he left the room. Huh. He really had never seen Crow do that with someone other than himself...or the other man that was in the hallway earlier. 

Still, despite everything as soon as Servo hovered in and planted himself on the bed, Joel felt a lot better. The bot instantly began talking at top speed asking everything from if Joel was okay to if being in the hospital was anything like the movie  _ Soultaker _ . He seemed confused when Joel said he didn’t remember that one, but soon Servo was babbling about the dinosaur chicken nuggets in the hospital food court, and how that related to some movie based on Edgar Rice Burrough's  _ The Land That Time Forgot _ .

Tom’s voice was different, and he was glad he’d gotten a heads up about that because it was noticeably different as opposed to the subtle difference in Crow’s. But Tom was very much himself, talkative and curious and full of life. And that was comforting in a way Joel couldn’t even begin to describe right now. After a point Tom just stopped talking, and cuddled himself next to Joel. Joel returned the favor, taking his bot into a hug. 

“I love you Tom Servo, you know that right?”

“I love you too Joel. I’m really glad you’re okay.”

Joel just held him close until Mike came back to tag him out. That small bit of probably irrational bitterness directed at Mike was still there when Servo left, but once again he felt better upon seeing the next of his creations enter the room. Although he was confused to see Servo gingerly carried out of the room by Mike the way Joel carried him into the theater. 

_ See he’s probably not that bad if the bots like him so much,  _ the voice in head said. 

_ Why is the doctor letting him stay in here and not your kids? _ Said another voice apparently playing the devil on his shoulder. _ Isn’t that weird? What’s up with him anyways? Who is he?  _

Joel’s thoughts were cut off by Cambot excitedly chirping. 

“Well hello to you too Cambot,” said Joel. “Now I don’t really remember your new casing but it looks great on you.”

The bot bashfully open and closed the spotlight flaps. 

“Hey Cambot,” said Joel. “I’m apparently not remembering a lot of stuff actually. When the time comes do you think you can help me go through the tapes of stuff I ought to know?” 

Cambot answered by playing a quick montage of what looked like mostly experiment tapes. They went by too quick to really get anything out of, but Cambot’s meaning was clear; the bot was up to the challenge when the time came.

“Thanks honey,”

“Are you doing okay?” 

The bot chirped happily. 

“Glad to hear it.” 

Joel proceeded to hug his bot until his time was up. 


	2. Chapter 2

The doctor came back in, clipboard in hand after Cambot’s visit. Mike was back in the room too, quietly sitting himself in the opposite side of the room again. He had eyed the closer bedside chair before shying away from it.

“How are you feeling Joel? Any change?” Dr. Kent asked.

“My head’s still doing a number on me. But I’m glad I got to see everyone.”

The doctor’s mouth twinged in an interestingly hard to read way for a second, before she continued with a professional tone. “You can see more of them during normal visiting hours. We’re going to keep you awake just a little while longer as a precaution because of your head injury, and then Nurse Sammy is going to give you some pain medicine that will make you tired-if you aren’t already from being kept up.”

“Mmmhh I’m always tired anyways.”

From across the room Mike let out a little chuckle at that, before he stared pointedly at the floor.  

“Well, you are,” muttered Mike. He was avoiding Joel’s gaze.

“Alright Joel. While we have you up we’re going to have a quick chat about some things, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Your appearance is probably going to look different than how you remember yourself looking. You’ve got injuries on your head and stomach. We’ll also be in and out to change those bandages later. The other thing though, is your appearance changed naturally during time you were missing. Your hair is going to look grayer, there’s some new lines on your face. When you eventually see yourself in the mirror I need you to understand this.”

Joel just blinked.

“Exactly how much time am I missing anyway?”

The doctor chewed her pen, as if debating if she should even tell him. But at this point there were enough pieces to know that it had to be at least…

“From what you’ve told me earlier I think we’re looking at about three decades.”

“What?”

“It’s November 1st 2020, Joel.”

He was expecting like ten years. At most. Not...not…not almost _30._ That was a lifetime. Hell, he was only 33. Or he remembered being only 33. What the doctor was telling him...that was almost the same amount time in missing memories as he’d remembered being alive.

_“What?”_

He felt his breath hitch. There was no way. That was too...there was no way.

From across the room he could see Mike visibly flinching.

“I thought we were supposed to break it to him slowly?” he said, a bit of anger was clearly in his voice, hidden behind a very thin veneer of what Joel recognized as Midwestern passive aggressiveness. “Isn’t that what we literally just talked about?”

Joel’s breathing felt shallow. His head was hurting even worse. He needed to get out of this room. He needed to get out of this room now. He got up, just mindful enough of the fact there was an IV drip attached to his arm.

“No wait,” began Doctor Kent, but Joel’s was already moving towards anywhere but here. He steadied the drip next to him, and just put one foot in front of the other. Only he didn’t. He fell. His legs went every which direction, he couldn’t adjust himself. He couldn’t...he couldn’t…

“Joel!” Shouted Mike. He rushed over and steadied him, attempting to cradle him in his arms. Joel pushed away for a second, but he was in too much shock to really try.

“What...what just…”

“Gravity,” said Mike. “The last thing you remember you remember you were on the Satellite of Love still, right?”

Joel nodded.

“You’re not... you weren’t thinking when you were trying to walk just now and weren’t compensating for real gravity,” said Mike. “You’re just used to artificial gravity instead. It’s just a muscle memory thing. I used to have the same problem right after…”

Mike stopped himself and glanced at the doctor. “Is there like a wheelchair or something he can use instead right now?”

“It’d be better if he stayed in the room right now.”

“It’d be better if you broke it to him slowly like you said you were going to do, but hey that ship kind of sailed,” countered Mike, a bit of bite was still in his voice.

“Can I go to the bathroom, please?” Joel managed. Actually he wanted out and it didn’t matter where, but the bathroom was the first place they’d probably let him.

Dr. Kent bit her pen. “I’ll get you that wheelchair. A nurse will have to accompany you.”

Joel used Mike to steady himself. Now that he knew to be consciously mindful of the gravity difference he could probably walk just fine, but he felt a little dizzy, and this whole thing was way too much. They rolled the chair over to him and sat him down. The nurse rolled his IV next to him. Mike offered to help steady him and once again Joel was too woozy to reject the offer. The nurse got him settled, and wheeled him toward the bathroom.

The bathroom was attached to the room itself, not nearly as far away from everything as Joel wished it was. Still, he was able to splash some water in face immediately, which he felt he really, really needed. He looked up in the mirror and looked at himself. He couldn’t say he hadn’t been warned, but damn if he wasn’t shocked.

The bandages looked awful, he could tell there was dried blood under them. But that was the least wrong thing staring at him. His face was wrong. His hair was wrong. Even his body was wrong. He removed the glasses which were also wrong, but that didn’t help. That wasn’t himself in the mirror, it was a complete and total stranger. He splashed even more water on his face. Somehow that was going to help the fact that as far as he was concerned he’d aged twenty seven years in less than a day. He felt his arms shaking as he splashed the water. He tried to steady himself on the sink, grasping it tightly. This was _surreal_. The kind of surreal he hadn’t felt since Dr. Forrester first shot him into space in the first place.

He forced himself to breathe deeply. He could get through this. _When life gives you lemons you make lemonade._ That’s what he always told himself. He could get through this. The satellite had worked out in the end. His bots provided him with more than just companionship, but became a family to him. The routines of the Satellite became familiar and honestly kind of fun. They became something that, if he were being completely one hundred honest with himself about, he didn’t want to leave behind. They were comfortable. They were _home_.

 _Home_. The concept stung. This really was Earth wasn’t it? And if he had to take a guess from the Mike and the doctor's accents, it was probably Minnesota to boot, or at least somewhere near it. Maybe Wisconsin. Maybe. How long had he been...home? And even now in all those years of forgotten memories was there some part of him that still considered the Satellite of Love home instead?

By the time Joel had forced himself to leave the bathroom, it felt like an eternity had passed. In reality it was probably only twenty minutes. Tops. The nurse helped him back into the bed, and Mike watched intently, constantly looking as if he were ready to spring out of his chair and help again. Joel just wanted everything to stop. To understand what was going on. For his damn head to stop pounding.

“Can you at least tell me more about what I don’t know ma’am?” he asked finally.

“We’re trying not to overwhelm you right now and I know it’s a lot,” said the doctor. “but we can fill you in on some simple questions you might have.”

Joel nodded, trying to figure out the essentials.

“Where am I? I mean I know this is a hospital but is this Minneapolis?”

The doctor nodded and supplied the hospital’s name. Saint something or other.

“Okay. Mike, how do we know each other?”

Mike looked up at the ceiling as if thinking, and then to the doctor. He got up, and moved to the closer chair. He took Joel’s hand and squeezed it, not unlike Crow did earlier.

“That’s probably one for tomorrow. But the short version is we’ve know each other a long time.”

He looked to the doctor again, as if trying to confirm if that answer was satisfactory. Joel sensed there was a lot more to it, but moved on so they wouldn’t cut him off from asking more.

“You said I was in an accident. What happened?”

Mike looked pained for a second and squeezed Joel’s hand again. Joel didn’t pull away, sensing the hand was more for Mike’s benefit than his.

“You were hit head on by a drunk driver going the wrong way,” said the Doctor. Your car was flipped.”

Mike winced again, and Joel suspected that the man was actively trying not to picture the scene. It sounded unpleasant, but then from his perspective he was still half suspecting to be told the satellite had a forced landing in the parking lot. Speaking of which...

“So what did happen to the Satellite of Love anyways? When did I leave it?”

“‘93,” said Mike. “Weirdly the last thing you seem to remember is only a few experiments before. Uh, it’s kind of a long story what happened after you left, so I guess that’s one for tomorrow too. Servo’s version is a tad bit over dramatic, so if he tells it know that.”

Joel nodded. Somehow that left him with way more questions than he started with.

“And Dr. Forrester? TV’s Frank? What happened to them?”

“They...passed away.”

Mike’s voice shifted and Joel knew he was editing.

“How? When?”

“The answer to both of those is way too complicated to get into right now. Frank passed in like ‘95 I think, and Forrester died after him if that helps?”

“It really doesn’t.”

“Right…” Mike’s voice trailed off and he awkwardly rubbed his hand on his neck. “Anything else?”

“There was a man in the hallway with you earlier. Who was he?”

“What man...oh. Oh, Jonah. He’s a good friend of ours. He’s keeping an eye on the bots while I’m in here with you.”

The doctor pursed her lips at that statement.

“Does he work at Gizmonics?”

“Yeah. R & D and some space stuff, but he’s grounded right now. If you’re feeling up to it in awhile I can probably sneak you two nerds some supplies for an invention exchange later.”

Joel legitimately perked up at the prospect while the doctor seemed to scowl a bit.

“What I said _later_ ,” protested Mike.

“You need to focus on letting your body heal,” she said to Joel.

Joel noticed Mike roll his eyes a bit quickly. The doctor didn’t seem to catch it.

Joel was having a hard time getting a read on Mike. He obviously knew him very well. The bots obviously trusted him. He was obviously concerned about Joel’s well being. But he seemed to have a bit of disdain for Doc Kent. Joel filed that away for later, not really sure how to address that right now. His uneasy feeling about the guy was still there, but he had it just together enough to recognize that the feeling was being fueled solely by frustration at the situation right now, and Mike himself hadn’t really done anything wrong. In fact the opposite, he was clearly trying to help.

“Anything else, Joel?” the doctor asked.

“Uh...what’s a Sampo?”

The doctor looked almost deeply concerned while Mike just let out a full belly laugh.

“Don’t worry the answer to that one is still ‘don’t ask’,” he said.

Joel managed to smile despite himself while the doctor opened her mouth in confused protest.

“Reference to an old movie, don’t worry about it,” explained Mike.

“Right, well, Nurse Sammy will take it from here, we had you awake for long enough. Mike, on the way out there will be a few things for you to sign. Reception can help you.”

A nurse, Nurse Sammy presumably, came in and handed Joel some pills. Joel choked them down and a much needed sleep washed over him. Or at least it did for a few hours, before he was woken to have his charts looked at repeatedly throughout the rest of night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Speccy for looking this over for me!

Joel woke up in a haze. It took several minutes to orient himself, and then yesterday’s events came flooding back to him. So did his panic over the whole thing. He took some deep breaths and tried reminding himself today was a new day. Doctor Kent promised him that he could see more of the bots today. Gypsum was coming. He’d get more answers, or well some answers, about everything he wasn’t understanding.

By the time one of the nurses came in to check on him, and do another reading oh his chart, he was (outwardly at least) his usual relaxed self. An effect which was helped by the fact he was genuinely still tired from being woken up so many times throughout the night before finally getting a few hours of continuous, actual sleep. The nurses checked the wounds under his bandages and he was more than a little embarrassed when they insisted they had to help him shower. Joel didn’t think that was strictly necessary, he didn’t feel dizzy anymore and the gravity thing wasn’t an issue now that he knew to think about it. But ultimately he just went with it, and at least they seemed really good at giving him just enough privacy he could almost pretend they weren’t there. And it wasn’t as if he wasn’t used to invasions of his privacy. Crow, Tom, Cambot, and even Gypsum to a lesser extent, had a tendency to be a bit over curious.

He was hooked back up to his monitors, wrapped up in a fresh set of Ace bandages, and given a breakfast tray. A plate of hospital hotcakes (which, true to the stereotypes of hospital food, were sort of cold and would be unappetizing if it weren’t for the fact he was kind of starving), a fruit cup, and a milk carton. The fruit cup wasn’t all that special, he was used to growing his own fresh produce on the SOL, but he drank the milk greedily. Actual milk from a carton was leagues better than the evaporated stuff Dr. Forrester would send up, and it felt a bit like getting a special treat. He amused one of the nurses with the speed he chugged it down and with the milk mustache he got.

By the time breakfast was over, and the nurses finished poring over his charts again, it was already past 10 am. He didn’t know what time visiting hours started, but it was way too late for the only part of the day he cared about.

The door swung open and he was greeted by another doctor. A woman about his age-or rather the age he remembered being before. She had a pen visibly tucked behind long locks of natural hair, and a pleasant smile that didn’t seem completely made up of forced professional.

“Joel Robinson?” she asked.

“Mmm, that’s me.”

“I’m Janet Singer, your psychologist. I’m going to be helping you with your memories.”

Joel nodded.

“Expecting an old Einstein looking guy with a German accent?” she joked.

“Not really. But I’ve been told I watch too many movies before, so as far as assumptions go, that one wouldn’t be too far off base. To be honest though I just wasn’t expecting anyone.”

Well, anyone but the bots.

“I’m here to check on you and how you’re doing. We’re going to work together on some memory retrieval strategies as your recovery comes along, but for now I just want to get a quick sense for how you’re feeling-- the notes I have here say you had a rough night.”

“That’s...kind of an underestimate,” said Joel.

“Feeling up to talking about it? Everything you say is just between us right now.

Joel sat awkwardly. “I’m not really good at talking about myself with people, ma’am.”

She nodded. “I understand. How about we break this down a little. How do you feel just right now?”

He thought for a second. “Kinda anxious I guess. I still don’t really understand what’s going on with me-- I’m missing out on a lot apparently. And I want to see my kids-- er, my bots that is. I don’t really remember Mike, I just know him from yesterday, not from all the other times I’m supposed to know him from, but we were talking yesterday about things I want to be filled I on. I didn’t really get many full answers and I just really want to pick that back up today.”

“You had a pretty tough time last night. Are you sure you’re ready to prod more?”

“I don’t know ma’am, I mean you try being told that you’re missing 30 years of your life…”

“That’s fair. And you don’t have to call me ma’am, We’re all friends here. You can even call me Janet if you want.”

“Sorry, I guess it’s force of habit, ma’am… er, Janet”

“There’s no need to apologize, Joel. It’s perfectly okay that you’re feeling anxious. You’ve been through a lot the past twelve hours. And it’s perfectly okay if you’d prefer the formality. I just find being on a first name basis helps some people open up, but if you’re not feeling that it’s fine. We don’t even have to talk about you if you want. We can talk about whatever you want to instead.”

Joel nodded for lack of a better response. He didn’t really have anything to add. He wanted this to hurry up so he could see Gypsum. “When do visiting hours start anyways?”

“We were scheduled to talk first.”

Joel groaned.

“I can tell administrators to schedule our future sessions after the first visiting hour block,” she said. “Do you feel like being with your robots makes you feel better?”

“Absolutely.” He didn’t have to think about the answer to that.

“Then we’re definitely making a note of that to allow you as much time with them as possible. If something makes you feel better, especially if it’s emotional support from friends and family, it’s the last thing I want to restrict. Your support network is going to be a big part of your recovery process.”

“Okay.” That was genuinely good news at least.

“Now I am going to sit in when they get here today, but only because if you’re sure you want to ask more about memories you’re missing later, I need to see if there’s any progress in triggering some recognition, or that you don’t get too overwhelmed again. Otherwise your time with them is your time.”

Joel still didn’t know what else to say. Janet picked up on that quickly and changed the subject to keep him talking.

“So I know you’re quite the inventor. Do you want to tell me about some of your ideas? I’d love to hear about them.”

Joel thought for a second. “I’m not the best at explaining my creative process when it’s ongoing. I tend to improv a lot and I’m not great at laying things out in a way that other people think is easy to understand until it’s done.”

“Can you tell me about some of the stuff you have completed then?”

“It’s usually easier to just show people, I’m better visually unless I have a spiel to give on this stuff but…”

He told her about everything from the Porkerina to the sign language translator to the non-violent action figures. He talked in detail about each and found himself smiling at the familiar joy of having an idea to show off.

She smiled at him, a genuine, actual smile that indicated she was listening and not just checking boxes. Janet was really good at getting him talking actually, somehow getting him sidetracked and into lecture mode. As he was wrapping up his talk on the importance of the rubber duck in popular culture, she cut him off.

“Looks like time’s up on this part of our talk today. Your first wave of visitors should be here soon if they’re not already in the lobby. I’ll be popping back in soon.”

 

Finally, he was greeted by Mike and the bots.

“Joel!” shouted Gypsum. The bot’s tubing was awkward in the small space, but she managed to slither her way in and plop herself down next to the bed.

Mike stood back a bit and put his hands in his pockets.

“Er, I know you have a ton of questions I wasn’t really able to answer yesterday; you probably want to get to that. But I think Gyps wants some one on one time first?”

The large purple bot nodded her tendril.

“Of course honey,” he said, directed at Gypsum.

Mike ushered the other robots out of the room. Once again Servo allowed himself to be carried, and Crow took Mike’s hand. Cambot followed closely behind. Tom and Crow were more lively today however, loudly bickering about the physics of something called The Upside Down as they made their way out.

“Joel!” exclaimed Gypsum. “Oh I was so worried when I heard! I would have gotten here earlier but I was on a business trip out in California, and my assistant couldn’t find a flight until late, and there were delays because of icing over here and then the time difference added even more time and...and oh, I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“Whoa, whoa back up. You have an assistant?”

Crow had told him about her new voice, but it, along with what she was saying, really did catch him a bit off guard despite that. Gone was the makeshift falsetto voice box Joel had hastily programmed together with sound clips of his own voice going up a few octaves all those years ago. Instead there was a soft (but still very much in charge) voice with a subtle Midwestern accent under it in its place. While she’d always been the most responsible and self sufficient of his bots with her duties maintaining the ship, he couldn’t help but notice his little girl sounded, well, all grown up.  

“Oh did Mike not tell you? I run my own company now. It’s publicly traded on the stock markets and everything!”

“Wow. That’s great.”

And so very established. How did one even go about starting a public traded company anyways? That kind of thing never really interested him the way mechanics and popular culture did, but he knew it had to involve a lot of time and hard work. He felt really proud of her. And was well, a bit shocked to say the least. This was his same Gypsum that just a few Christmases ago tried to beg him for a pony.

She brought her head down to his level. Upgrades or not, her design was still the same, which made this awkward, but he hugged her oversized mouth casing close, stopping only so she could keep talking about her accomplishments. Which she did for a while longer, and Joel’s sense of pride in her only grew.

“Of course I had to squash a hostile takeover attempt last year. You go on one multi-year forced sabbatical and suddenly….”

“Forced sabbatical? What happened?”

His question was cut short by Mike peeping in with the other bots. The guy had a really awful sense of timing.

“If you’re not done yet we can come back…” he started.

Joel mulled that over, the desire to be with the rest of his family too and finally get some straight answers out of Mike sooner rather than later won out over his last question to Gypsum. He could always just ask her later.

“Joel, Joel, Joel, Joel,” Tom and Crow began. “Have you met Nurse Ratched? Or a precious orphan with only a few days to live who inspired you to do good deeds with their pwecious-ness? Or a strange medical mystery only a hot shot quirky doctor with an attitude can solve? Or a sitcom couple racing to get a baby born after the mom’s water broke suddenly, while everyone is clearly ill prepared and wearing silly costumes from some earlier shenanigans?”

They were talking over each other at the same time but he was practiced enough in this that he could pick up every single movie or tv cliche they dropped. He chuckled.

“Sorry guys, nothing that exciting. But I’m living all the amnesia cliches.”

Crow and Tom huddled together for a second.

“Any secrets from your old life you need to uncover that could cause you to go on an extended action hero binge as you outrun an evil oppressive government spies or enemy agents out to get you?” asked Crow.

“Guys it’s Joel, you know exactly what his ‘old life’ is,” said Mike. “And if you’re referencing the _Bourne_ movies wasn’t that like 2002? He’s not going to get that reference.”

“Duh Mike. I was referencing the far superior _Who Am I?_ Starring Jackie Chan.”

“That was like ‘98 or ‘99.”

“Really? Fine then I was referencing... _The Long Kiss Goodnight_ , then.”

“Okay, closer that time, but I think it was more like ‘96. And no one remembers that movie but us; you only saw it because you rented the wrong one that one time.”

“Who gets asked for ‘that action movie about the amnesia person’, and doesn’t hand over the first _Bourne_ movie?” huffed Servo.

“Shh, Servo, I’m proving a point. And maybe they’d hand over ‘84’s _American Dreamer_. Take that, Nelson.”

“Nelson?” asked Joel.

“My last name,” explained Mike quickly. “Also I can’t decide if _American Dreamer_ sounds like some dumb romantic comedy or sounds like a movie that the Mads would have used. Or both.”

“I saw it on cable once,” interjected Gypsum. “It’s really more down the middle, love it or hate it quality.”

Joel stared at him. “It just occurred to me how much pop culture I have to catch up on,” said Joel.

“Literally nothing Crow just listed off is important enough to care about,” said Servo, as Crow immediately exclaimed “hey!”.

“We should probably catch you up about yourself before we worry about everything else,” said Gypsum.

“Yeah you see Joel, you’re actually now an adventure archeologist who lets us stay up late and eat ice cream for breakfast,” said Tom.

“Ignore him,” said Mike.

“Yeah Servo. No one’s going to believe that. Besides he’s clearly benevolent monk who gives all of his prized possessions to the less fortunate-- like us.”

“ _Crooooow,”_ said Mike in a warning tone.

“Oh come on, I’m just speaking the truth here, Mike,” said Crow.

Cambot let a series of annoyed clicks, while Gypsum told her brothers to “cut it out you two!”

“Well as you can clearly see, these two haven’t changed,” said Mike.

Joel chuckled. Despite everything, these were still his little wisecrackers.

“Your psychologist said out in the hall that she’ll be in in a second,” said Mike. “She said something about being here when we start catching you up on your memories. Your actual memories, not whatever these two turkeys come up with.”

“That’s right,” she said, appearing on cue. “I’m going to be Joel’s main point of contact over his memory issues from the psychological aspect. Dr. Kent, who you met last night, is covering mostly the neurological aspect. You’ll see her again soon at your CAT scan tomorrow, Joel.”

“Great,” said Mike in a barely concealed, sarcastic mumble. “Love that woman, she’s the best.”

Interestingly, Cambot, Crow, and Tom all reacted with annoyance at the mention of Dr. Kent’s name as well. Huh.

“Joel, like we discussed earlier, I’m not going to take time away from you and your family, or stop you from gaining any answers you’re after, but I am going to make sure you don’t get too overwhelmed. So if at any point you need a rest you can let me know. That said it’s probably best we do this in chunks. Let’s not get into the weeds of more than one or two big picture things, and we can always pick this up tomorrow. We’re going to have a chat about how you’re feeling after visiting hours are over.”

Joel squinted uncomfortably. He wasn’t sure if in practice this would be any different than yesterday then.

“Okay. Mike, I asked you yesterday how we knew each other. You said it was one for today and kinda implied it was a long story. Can you fill me in?”

Mike sat down next to him. He took a deep breath, and attempted to grab hold of Joel’s hand. He seemed to do that a lot. Joel just kind of let him this time.

“So yeah see, like I said we’ve known each other a long time. A really long time. We...I honestly don’t even know how to start. I just...I guess just well...you see you weren’t the only the captive on the Satellite. And well, that kind of thing you start bonding over. We, well, we’re kinda…

Mike blushed bright.

“...married…”

“Oh.”

A beat.

“Wait. We’re kind of WHAT now?”

Mike waved his left hand awkwardly, which displayed a simple wedding band by way of explanation for that little bombshell.

That.

That.

That...actually made a whole hell of a lot of sense. Why Mike was in the room with him when he woke up. Why Mike was the appointed medical contact. Why Dr. Kent had gone out of her way to ask about him. Why the bots were so trusting of him.

Huh.

But also _huh_?

Same sex marriage wasn’t even legal in Minnesota last time he’d checked. So there was that. Societal progress must have made some leaps in the last 30 years or so. Maybe there were more good things like that to look forward to.

But then…really?

It wasn’t that Mike was necessarily unattractive or anything. It was just that it took a lot more than physical looks for Joel to truly be attracted to anyone; he had to really know a person before all that started happening. Mike was still a stranger to him.

But also, Joel didn’t think he wanted to get married. To anyone. Ever. Even if he was attracted to them. The whole thing was just an annoying social construct he didn’t really have the time or energy for.

And then there was that Joel realized intellectually, maybe, that he wasn’t actually just in his early thirties yesterday. But he still felt like he was just in his early thirties just yesterday, and any vague mental image of a future romantic partner was somewhere around that age. Mike...was no longer in his early thirties. And well, yeah. So that was awkward. Time to think about something that wasn’t that.

Mike was sitting patiently waiting for Joel to say well, _something_ . He was wringing his hands and Joel caught him fiddling with the band. While trying to think of something to say, Joel’s mind went back to what Mike had just said in addition to that little statement. That they’d met because Joel wasn’t the only captive and... _huh?!_

Mike being an SOL captive on on some level, also made some kind of sense. Joel had been way too overstimulated to catch it at the time, but Mike pretty much said as much when Joel fell over yesterday. That he’d experienced the anti-gravity to gravity problem too. But also...

“Wait, so if you were also a captive does that mean we lived on the SOL together?” Joel might have been avoiding...the other part of that a bit there, but if that’s how they got together...

Mike rubbed his hand behind his head. “Not exactly…”

Joel looked up at him expectantly.

“Okay so...it’d probably be easiest to start at the beginning. I was working as a temp and my temp agency sent me out to Deep 13 to work for Dr. F and TV’s Frank. Just a basic audit of their stuff. Gyps overheard the two talking and well, there was a big misunderstanding and we kind of thought they were planning to kill you?”

Joel just blinked. Gypsum hung her head.

“What happened was my fault,” she explained. “I kept trying to tell you that you were in danger, but I couldn’t get you to listen, so I enlisted Mike to help. He did some snooping and we found out there was an emergency escape pod onboard stashed away in a case of Hamdingers.”

“Hamdingers? Seriously?”

“The perfect hiding place-- no one would have ever willingly opened it up,” piped up Servo.

“And, well, it turns out we got some things wrong. They weren’t planning to kill you at all.”

“They were actually trying to kill me,” said Mike. “But uh, you know how Dr. Forrester killing people usually went so I probably would have been fine...in the long run. Maybe. But well, before we could piece any of that together Gypsum had already activated the escape pod, and you were on your way to Australia.”

“So that’s it then? That’s how the bots and I escaped?”

Mike winced, and the bots all shifted uncomfortably.

“No,” said Crow. “That’s how you escaped. The rest of us were still there.”

“So I  _Ieft you_?!” exclaimed Joel.

Mike put a hand on Joel’s shoulders, trying to be comforting. “Hey, hey. It one hundred percent was not your fault and you had no say in it. It was a massive misunderstanding that got way out of hand.”

“Well _that_ time it wasn’t your fault,” muttered Crow.

“Crow, _really_ not the time right now, okay?” said Mike, his voice strained.

“What. What happened? You weren’t left alone were you?!”

Janet looked as if she was just about to cut this conversation off, but Joel did everything he could to try and non-verbally telegraph he wanted to hear this. He _needed_ to hear this. He needed to hear this even if he could tell his heart rate was skyrocketing.

“Nah,” said Servo. “They sent someone else. Someone, in this case, being Mike. _‘Their experiment needed a new test case, so they clonked him on the noggin’ and shot him into spaaaace!’_ ” he singsonged to a familiar tune.

“I was held captive for another five years...well depending on how you count it,” explained Mike. “Some things changed, Forrester and TV’s Frank both died. And then Dr. F’s mother, Pearl, took over as our tormentor a bit. She had two assistants, Bobo and Brain Guy...they’re interesting. But otherwise you know, bad movies. Some _really bad_ movies. Banter with the Mads. Skits and shenanigans. Occasional temporary insanity. You know, same old, same old. These guys really helped me keep it together though.”

He paused for a second.

“Eventually the Satellite crashed. It was a tough landing, but we all walked away from it. We, uh, the bots and I, got a little place in Minneapolis. Except for Gyps who went off and started her company.

Anyways, during the time we were up there you wandered around the Outback for a bit. You toured with a band doing pyrotechnics for them. Then you found your way back to the Midwest and managed a Hot Fish Shop. You opened a branch in Minneapolis and we all reconnected when I got back to Earth. For a while we would sort of play ‘my two Dads’ with the bots, trading off custody weekly.”

Gypsum let out a fake cough.

“Except for Gypsum who was and still is independent and was running her own company…And then well one thing led to another and we well, we kind of fell in love.”

Mike’s eyes began to water a bit. “You kissed me first, took me by complete surprise because I had no idea if you were even into me or if I was just reading things that weren’t there or what. You’re a really good kisser by the way,”

He kind half chuckled to himself before continuing, but the watering eyes prevented there from being any real humor in it.

“Our first real date...you took me to the State Fair. We already took the bots the day before but when they found out we went without them they were so mad, I think they actually cared about that more than the fact we were dating. But well, you dragged me around, made me go on all the rides until I had to put my foot down at the tilt a whirl because I felt like I was going to throw up on you. Before that I was trying to show off a bit and prove I was tough enough to deal with it. So we cooled down, we went and pet some animals. An alpaca tried to steal my cotton candy. I had a cheap disposable camera on me and we got some dorky pictures of you messing around on tractors for sale. And then, well, we just kind of sat together. Shared a homemade malt with two straws like in an old movie. You took my hand. Held it. I just...I don’t want to say I’ve dated a lot of people, because well I always sucked at dating and ‘a lot’ is just the number of failed first dates I’ve had. But I’d dated enough people to know that right there in that moment I never felt like this before with a person. That I just...that you were special.

And well...did you know that Ye Old Mill is the oldest tunnel of love in the United States? I mean I guess you would unless you learned that...after what you’re missing...because that’s what you told me. You grabbed my hand, took me on it, and just kissed me. Kissed on the oldest, cheesiest tunnel of love in existence. You tasted like the Caramel apples still mixed with the chocolate malt. Sorry...none of that was probably what you were asking, I got really sidetracked just, well thought you should know. So yeah.

...I’m sorry.”

Mike didn’t just run out of the room. He positively bolted.


	4. Chapter 4

Joel sat with Janet as she waited for him to answer what was supposed to be an easy question.

“Can you tell me what you’re thinking about?” she asked again gently.

“I’m not even sure what’s going on in my mind right now,” he said.

There was a lot swimming around in there. He was thinking about what happened earlier with Mike on repeat. The bots quickly ran after him, all except Cambot who made it a point to nudge Joel and make sure h _e_ wasn’t frozen in place. Gypsum popped in shortly after to tell him they were all still here, they were just going to be in the food court for a bit, and signaled Cambot to follow. They didn’t come back for over an hour. And so that was his cue to begin his session with Janet. His session, which he could just tell Janet wasn’t going to let slip by.

He had another round of visitors coming later, in addition to probably having to address what happened earlier with Mike. Part of him kind of wanted to just avoid it. Despite his initial meeting with Mike being a bit frosty (solely on Joel’s end, Joel was willing to acknowledge), he recognized that the evidence pointed to the fact he was a good guy. A good guy that was probably really truly worried about him. Not to mention… in love with him.

Joel thought back to his past experience with one sided love. There was Dr. Forrester, of course. He’d never been directly propositioned or anything, especially not after being taken captive, but he wasn’t quite as naive as he thought people assumed he was. He was well aware of what the pet names, the special attention, and the bizarre brand of jealousy looked like. He’d never been one hundred percent sure that a strange little one sided crush on the not-so-good Doctor’s side had a hand in his fate, but he’d always suspected and the evidence tended to pile up.

And then, going back even further, there was Midge. In high school, he apparently completely failed to notice that Midge Larson followed him around everywhere until she asked him to prom. He made up some hastily constructed and paper thin excuse to not go, and then just avoided her until graduation. At the time he didn’t think he was even capable of feeling romantic things for a person. When he eventually realized in college that, conditionally, once he knew someone really well, he could, it wasn’t with a woman and probably couldn’t ever be.

The possibility of avoiding his, well, husband apparently, wasn’t even remotely the same thing.

No, Mike deserved better than that. Even if Joel had no idea how to address, well, everything, with him. Even if Mike seemed to be the one avoiding him now. Even if at this point all Joel could really do was break the poor guy’s heart by not being the person he remembered him being.

“I really don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” he said aloud.

“Honestly Joel, no one’s expecting you to. Some things you have to take little by little.”

He mulled over that until their session ended. Janet left him and said she was going to be visiting with a few other patients, but stressed to him if he was feeling any emotional distress to call for a nurse, and that she’d try to at least talk to him by phone if it was after hours, or in the worst case scenario they could send up a counselor on duty. He liked her enough, but he’d probably just deal with his own demons by himself tonight. He was used to it. Even with the company of the bots, the Satellite had always given him just a little too much time to think.

And then Mike came in, interrupting his intention of thinking in solitude.

“Can we talk?” he asked. “Just the two of us?”

Joel didn’t say anything, and Mike kept talking anyways.

“Look. I’m sorry about earlier; I shouldn’t have run out of there like that, especially not after dumping all of that on you. It just hit me again all of sudden how much I’m worried about you, and yeah… I’m… I’m not expecting you to just wake up tomorrow and remember everything, and then for everything to go back to normal. It’d be nice, but I know that’s not how this works.

Literally all I want is for you to be all right. Well, okay, I want you to get your memories back, but only because if you were half as happy as I am with all your memories of well, us...then I want you to feel that again. God, I just want you to be happy and healthy and okay…

But if you don’t end up remembering… my only agenda is wanting to be here to help you. I love you so much. And I know damn well you don’t feel the same way back right now, but you don’t have to. Just know I’m here if you need me, and I’m willing to fight like hell on your behalf to help you get through this. And I know if the situation was reversed, you’d do the same for me.

...Joel, please say something so I know I didn’t just pour my heart out to you while you were sleeping with your eyes open?”

“Something?” tried Joel.

Mike chuckled a bit. “Smartass.”

Joel thought about what Janet had said earlier. That no one was actually expecting him to know what his next move was. “So one day at a time, then?”

“Yeah,” said Mike. “That sounds about right.”

The silence that followed was comfortingly companionable despite its potential to turn more awkward. Mike shot Joel a little crooked smile and Joel returned the favor by looking up at him with a little half smile, tilting his head to the side as he did so. Like Mike said, things probably weren’t going to go right back to the normal Mike remembered, but at least he understood that was the case. And Joel could maybe roll with that as they figured it out from there. Nothing was really resolved, but at least the cards were on the table. It really was going to be one day at a time while they navigated… however this was going to work.

They were interrupted by a knock coming from the doorway. Joel could make out that the knock came from...a giant homemade greeting card? Yep that was clearly a giant homemade greeting card, but upon closer inspection he could tell there was a large yellow clad set of legs behind it. The man carrying the card also had a hot dish covered in tin foil in his other hand. The fact he was carrying the big floppy construction paper creation one handed served to make it more wobbly and unsteady.

“Jonah?” asked Mike.

“Hey Mike. So, yeah, I happened to mention to a couple of people at Gizmonics I was taking off early because my friend was laid up. They figured out it was Joel and before I knew it they made this. And then one of the TAs made the hot dish. I honestly have no idea when she even had time to today. You mind taking the card from me before it falls in the food?”

“Oh yeah, great idea Jonah,” said Tom who had appeared next to him and was hovering up to the height of the stack. “Ask Mike to steady the unsteady thing. _That’ll_ end well.”

“Hey…” protested Mike. “I’m perfectly capable of carrying one single piece of construction paper. Usually…”

“ _You_ could help, Tom,” said Jonah.

“But watching you struggle is so much fun,” cracked Crow who walked in behind him. Gypsum appeared and took the card in her mouth, placing it in the space between the bedside table and the bed itself. Cambot followed behind her. Mike took the hot dish and placed it on the bedside table itself. He unsuccessfully tried to hide the fact he stubbed his toe in the process as Tom made a “tsking” sound.

Joel wasn’t paying attention to them, however, but to two other bots at Jonah’s feet. A green taller bot (by comparison to the other bots, but still much shorter than Jonah) and a little orange and white guy who was just a bit taller than Tom.

“Uh,” said Joel.

“Oh right,” said Mike. “Joel, this is Jonah Heston.”

Jonah, now with two free hands (very large hands, Joel noticed), shot him a little wave.

“Hey Joel,” he said by way of introduction. “You feeling better?”

Joel didn’t answer. His eyes were still on the new bots.

“I’m M. Waverly,” proclaimed the little orange guy grandly. Crow scowled at him.

“Hiya Joel. I’m Growler,” said the green one in a voice that reminded him of Rowlf the Dog from The Muppets.

The gears in his head were turning a bit. He was missing a lot and his game of twenty questions had been more like...one and a half. But 30 years was a lot of time. It was a lot of time to decide that hey, maybe four kids just isn’t enough and who wants a little brother or two? It was enough to draft the rough outline of a schematic after a late night a bit buzzed on cheap sherry and make some potentially questionable choices in the back of a workshop… And if that were true… oh. Oh no. He was so in the running for worst Dad of the year.

Apparently reading the confused expression on Joel’s face, Jonah stepped in.

“They’re mine,” said Jonah quickly. “I built them.”

Joel tried to disguise the fact he was sighing in relief.

“Unfortunately,” said Crow through a clenched beak.

“What did we talk about, Crow?” asked Mike.

“Don’t openly hate the interlopers? Just keep my hatred to myself?”

“That isn’t what you were supposed to take from that,” said Mike.

“That’s actually a long way since I first built them. I’ll take it,” said Jonah.

“They’re really impressive,” said Joel, honestly, now that he could remove himself from the situation a bit.

Tom and Crow scowled (well, Tom scowled as much a little red robot with no facial expressions could scowl). Jonah, on the other hand, beamed at the compliment. “Thanks. I mean...you deserve some credit too...I did kind of base them off the source code for Tom and Crow’s AI…”

“You understand their source code?”

Jonah shrugged modestly. Too modestly, because that was not easy task. He’d programmed the bots with a lot of by-the-seat-of-his-pants programming and happy accidents. Joel wasn’t even sure he fully grasped what every single line of their code controlled, and he was the one that put it there.

“Yep, Waverly and Growler are so great and Jonah’s so great for building them,” said Crow sarcastically. “Can we talk about literally anything else?”

Mike kind of rolled his eyes. “They have a jealousy problem. It’s...mostly under control. Servo gets along with Waverly these days at least, and it’s been a solid fifty days since anyone tried to turn anyone into a pinata again.”

“Eh Mike it’s okay,” said Growler. “We mess around and stuff.”

Crow shrugged, and began eating part of the hot dish messily.

“You just had lunch, you’ll spoil your appetite for dinner!” chastised Gypsum.

“Let him,” said Jonah. “I have a feeling once everyone goes home tonight they’re going to make more to bring over for tomorrow. _All of them._  At which point I’m going to get stuck with all the extras you guys don’t have room for. And I don’t even like hot dish!”

“Blasphemy! Blasphemy from the pineapple on pizza eating heretic!” joked Mike. That was new. Over the last two days this was the first time he’d really seen Mike be plain old silly. But also…

“You eat pineapple on pizza,” Joel said to Jonah “and we’re friends?” He hoped his tone came off as joking, but then... seriously, pineapple on pizza? Sheesh.

“Hey! I was born in Honolulu. It’s the food of my people!”

“Technically Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada,” said Tom.

“Oh, so it’s not just an assault on the sanctity of pizza, it’s an assault on the sanctity of pizza from the Canucks. That’s even worse, no wonder their bacony fingerprints are all over it!” said Crow.

“Let’s not start with the Canada jokes, that never ends well,” said Mike, but his tone wasn’t serious. He was laughing. “Rowsdower protect us.”

Joel just blinked. If that last part was a joke of some kind he didn’t really get it, but everyone in the room was playfully mirthful in the moment and he didn’t want to interrupt that.

“Leave some hotdish for Joel,” said Mike. “Since you’re going in for testing first thing tomorrow I think that means no dinner because of the fasting requirement,” he said, addressing Joel directly.  “And if lunch is what they have in the cafeteria, then the hotdish is going to be way better.”

Jonah wordlessly passed him a napkin and some plastic utensils. Mmm. Hot dish. Real Minnesota Hot Dish made by someone that wasn’t himself. It even had the traditional tater tot upper layer. He savored the bite.

“Oh hey, you mind passing me that card?” he asked once he finished.

“Oh yeah,” said Jonah. “Here. So I realize this might sound kind of strange with well, where your head’s at now, but a lot of us at Gizmonic really looked up to you — still do. Like I said, a lot of people wanted to send you well wishes.”

Jonah, now with two hands free, helped Joel open the card. He began to read the notes.

 

_Dear Joel,_

_I went through a rough time recently. Without going into details things weren’t going my way at work, all my friends were feeling distant, and little things that weren’t working out right were feeling a lot bigger than they probably were. Watching you watching movies helped me so much. Suddenly it was like being in my living room with my close friend, whose optimism and sense of humor I could rely on to help me get out of the dumps. We’ve never met in person but I can truly say you’ve had a huge impact on my life. I hope you get well soon._

 

_Dear Joel,_

_You inspired me to get into robotics. I saw your robots and knew that one day I wanted to make something like that. Well today I’m a proud Gizmocrat and doctorate in, you guessed it, robotics. I hope you feel better soon. Tell Tom Servo and Croooooow that they’re awesome for me (if it doesn’t go straight to their heads)._

 

_Joel Robinson,_

_Your inventions always make me smile. I hope you have a quick recovery!_

 

_Joel,_

_Several years ago I was hospitalized and given chemo for my ovarian cancer. I was miserable and the treatment wasn’t helping. My friend sent me some old self-recorded episodes of_ Mystery Science Theater _as a way to distract me. And it did. They say laughter is the best medicine and you brought me so much joy. I hope these notes help you the way you helped me. We’re all rooting for you._

_P.S. I’ve been in remission and cancer free for 13 years now._

“There’s a lot of people that have your back,” whispered Mike from beside him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again thank you Speccy for betaing!


	5. Chapter 5

Joel’s stomach grumbled. Mike had been right yesterday about them making him fast for the exam. Food. He wanted food. He couldn’t get food until they were done checking his head. Drat.

He realized that part of the reason he was so food motivated involved the conditioning Dr. Forrester put him through, but also, he was just really hungry. And really liked food. And fasting was awful. He’d gone to bed hungry, been woken up throughout the night again, and now he was starving. It was pretty much all he could think about.

Dr. Kent came to collect him along with a radiologist, and gave him some spiel about the CAT scan. Or CT scan as the radiologist with her kept calling it. As the doctors talked he found himself getting a bit dizzy. The room seemed to spin and everything around him was blurry-- and not just because they made him take off his glasses.

He found himself unable to really concentrate during the doctors’ spiel on what would happen, his mind instead consumed with the dizziness. There was something about how they’d normally like to use an MRI on an adult because the results would be clearer, but the tracking device Dr. F had apparently implanted at some point would mess with those results...something, something, something, stay very still or they’ll have to do this all over again, and it’d be over soon.

Mike was next to him and had been given an apron thing to wear that would block out the scanner from scanning him as well. The bots were noticeably not present.

“There can’t be too much metal near the machine,” said Doctor Kent, almost dismissively.

“Right, because that’s your only problem with them,” muttered Mike just loud enough that Joel could barely hear him.

There was something to that exchange but thinking about it too hard was kind of difficult at the moment.

Everyone assured him they were right there if he needed them and Mike would be there next to him. It was supposed to be comforting but it just felt like a lot at once. He thought about saying something about how off he felt, but made a snap decision to just deal with it, and speak up if he still felt off later. The sooner this stupid test was done, the sooner they’d let him back in the room. The sooner he could see the bots. The sooner he could _eat something_.

The machine felt claustrophobic and too close. It reminded him a bit of what people that hadn’t spent a chunk of their lives on a spaceship must imagine a spaceship felt like. The way the tray thing he was laying on moved made him feel like baggage through an airport scanner. The first run through was probably over pretty quickly, but for some reason it felt like he was there way too long. And sitting completely still was a lot harder than it sounded when everything about the machine was extremely uncomfortable and the cushioned headrest thing was rubbing against the bandages on his head in a really annoying way. And ugh he was so _hungry!_

His vision blurred a bit more. He could hear the far away sound of the doctor over a speaker asking if everything was alright, and Mike calling his name. He began to feel even farther away, as if he was dreaming. He was right? Dreaming? That what this was? Such a weird dream. That he was getting a CAT scan. That he was off the Satellite. That it was the future. That he’d woken up this morning at all. Everything went black.

When Joel came to he was back in his hospital room. It took him a second to gain his bearing and for his brain to catch up with his surroundings. It probably hadn’t been a dream, he’d passed out getting a CAT scan. That made sense…maybe. His stomach grumbled again. He was still hungry, and everything felt wrong.

“ _Uuuuugggggrrrh,_ ” he managed.

Not quite what he was going for. He meant to open with “Can someone please explain to me what happened, I’m not feeling particularly well?”

“What happened?” He tried again, much more coherently this time.

“Joel?” asked Doctor Kent. “Are you with us?”

“I think so?”

The room was still blurry, but it was mostly because of the missing glasses, and the lightheaded feeling was mostly gone. He reached unsuccessfully for the bedside table. Seeing him struggle, Mike, or at least a set of blurry male arms that were probably Mike, handed him the glasses. Mike’s touch lingered just a second longer than was probably strictly necessary.

“Joel, are you able to answer a few diagnostic questions for me?” asked Doctor Kent.

Joel nodded slowly. She asked him largely the same questions about his state of awareness as she’d asked last time. The only difference was he knew most of the answers this time-- except the president one, no one had bothered to tell him the answer to that one yet. But his awareness of why he didn’t know seemed to be the answer she was looking for. He followed her finger successfully.

“You fainted,” she explained. “It’s possible it was a reaction to fasting, or something else unrelated to your head injury. But it’s also possible that we’re dealing with something related to your concussion. Have you ever gotten faint like this in the past?”

“No. And I’m pretty sure I’ve never passed out from not eating before… that I can remember, anyways.”

He looked at Mike, hoping he could take it from there. It felt weird relying on someone else to fill in bits of his medical history. Even if it was probably necessary.

“No, he never has,” said Mike. “He’s usually got an appetite and really likes food, but every now and then he’ll forget to eat when he’s absorbed in a project. He’s usually fine though and never said anything about feeling faint or something.”

“What’s his diet typically like?” asked Doctor Kent.

“Pretty good, I guess? He’s got a sweet tooth and likes junk food a lot, but he’s also the biggest stickler in the house for eating healthy and making sure everyone gets their greens. And for the most part the snacks are in moderation. But yeah he’s got a good diet for the most part. His last check up his cholesterol and all that came back normal.”

She nodded. “I have that on my chart. His last check up was about a year ago so we might to run some tests again. We’ll have a nurse back in for a blood test later.”

“I’m still really hungry, can I get something to eat?” Joel muttered.

“Actually I’ve got something for you,” said Mike, as he disappeared into the hallway for a moment.

Joel’s stomach grumbled again, and must have been playing tricks on him because he smelled waffles.

Wait, those were really were waffles. Waffles topped with syrup and butter and...was that a berry compote? They were in a styrofoam take out box instead of being on a plate like god intended, but otherwise they were the waffles of his dreams!

Apparently he was making a face and showing his desire for these delicious, delicious waffles, because Mike, who was holding those delicious, delicious waffles, laughed at him just a bit.

“Gypsum went to get these while you were getting your scan,” he said. “They are your favorite, so you know, eat up.”

He was handed some plastic silverware and went to town on eating the flakey, soft, but just perfectly crunchy and absolutely amazing waffles. Which were far superior to pancakes, and anyone who said otherwise was wrong. The berry compote cascaded off the sides in just the right way. The butter was soft and melty, catching in just the right spot. The waffles had the perfect bite and the toppings complemented each other. He was making little “mmm” noises, because waffles were the best. And these waffles in particular were the best of the best.

Mike shook his head a bit in amusement and handed him some orange juice to chase the waffles down with. The bots began piling in as Joel licked the tips of his fingers.

“Are those waffles gone already?”  asked Tom. Crow shook his head in much the same way Mike did.

“MmmTheywerereallygoodokay,” Joel said, the last mouthful of waffle was impeding his speech.

“I’m honestly surprised we ever got to have anything else for breakfast,” said Tom.

“It stops being special if it isn’t a sometimes treat,” said Joel. Although really that was a lie to make sure they ate healthy sometimes. There was nothing that could stop waffles from being amazing.

“Where were those from anyway?” asked Joel.

The takeout box and the fact Gypsum went to pick them up betrayed that they weren’t homemade, but they tasted like they easily could have been.

“A little place called Sally’s Waffles down the road from here,” said Gypsum.

“We can take you down when you’re feeling better,” said Mike. “They have the best bacon strips.”

Mike licked his lips just a quick second after that proclamation. So maybe he wasn’t the only the food enthusiast here. Interesting…

Eventually he’d have to at least make an honest effort to really, purposefully get to know Mike. If not as an attempt to get back to whatever they were supposed to be (quite frankly that was ground Joel wasn’t ready to really touch yet), than to get to know the person that was advocating for him. For now he had the little hints about Mike he’d managed to pick up. His closeness with the bots, the facts the bots seemed to tease him for klutziness, a genuine desire to help him, and now that he seemed to have a soft spot for at least one breakfast food. It wasn’t a full picture of a person by any means, but maybe a blurry picture that had some unfortunate exposure during the development process. Something to go off of even if it even if it wasn’t perfectly clear.

Dr. Kent smiled patiently, but looked a bit harried as she glanced around the assembled visitors and moved to get out of the way of Gypsum’s coils several times.

“You were supposed to wait,” she said the bots. “There’s too many of you in here.”

Joel felt a sudden jolt of anxiousness run though him.

“Please let them stay, it’s alright. Please?” His deadpan hid just how much he really begging, but he was begging. Begging to the full extent he could. The thought that all of them weren’t supposed to be in the room at once after the first night hadn’t occurred to him. They were all in there when Janet was there, and it’d been alright then. She even said it was good for him to be around friends and family.

The doctor shifted uncomfortably, but didn’t move to shoo the bots out.

“Joel, you’ll need let me know if you’re still feeling up to your session with Doctor Singer later today. If not, we can reschedule for tomorrow. In a few hours call a nurse in and let them know how you’re feeling.”

The Doctor made her exit, but not before Joel noticed her scowling at Cambot’s direction. That was...huh. Kind of weird really.

Soon visiting hours started in earnest and the bots wanted to spend some time catching him up on the latest television trends. Mike had warned them they had to take it easy today, so this was the verison of “taking it easy” they settled on. They had brought along a laptop computer-- and wait, that was what a laptop computer looked like nowadays? It wasn’t only a laptop computer, but a laptop computer that was considered too big and outdated? It’s really big compared to most modern day technology? There were also commercially available cellular phone computers too now?

That particular line of questions gave Mike pause. “Did they not give you your personal effects yet?” he asked. “I know they should have your phone somewhere at least.”

Mike looked distracted for a second but Joel was preoccupied with the world’s technological advancements.

He owned one of these phone computers? Everyone owned one of these phone computers?

Could he maybe take one of these phone computers apart and see what made it tick?

The bots seemed wholly unphased by the technology, and instead just wanted to show him some tv show called _Stranger Things_ that apparently you could only watch on the World Wide Web.

“No one calls the internet that anymore Joel,” said Crow. “Well maybe geeks and losers.”

Cambot took the opportunity to project footage of Crow passionately setting up “the information superhighway” for the first time.

Crow tried to stare the other bot down and crossed his arms defensively. Meanwhile Joel was watching the footage closely. Crow was clearly on the Satellite, but it looked different, as if it received a slight repaint. The Gizmonic G on the hallway door was gone. Mike was there, so this had to be after… Joel didn’t quite like thinking in terms of “after” yet.

After a moment Cambot decided the window for teasing their sibling was over, and closed the footage as Joel was still studying it.

“Alright enough of that, _Stranger Things_ time. You can’t be a member of society without knowing about what’s going on in this show or _Game of Thrones_ ,” said Servo.

“And since someone _, Mike,_ is too cheap to get us HBO, _Mike,_ then _Stranger Things_ it is,” said Crow.

“If we got HBO we couldn’t afford the sports package,” said Mike a bit defensively.

“Where’s Jonah, it feels kind of weird watching this without him,” piped in Servo.

“It’s still Friday, he has to work,” said Mike.

“Oh is it?” said Joel. “You know they told me the date and not what day of the week it was. If you don’t mind me asking, what do you do that you have the weekdays off?”

“I really don’t mind. If there’s something you want to know, just ask… medically within reason I guess, they want to make sure you’re not overdoing it. Especially with you going all woozy on us. But uh yeah. I’ve got a regular old, boring office job. Data entry. I was a temp before that uh well-- I told you that part. Usually I work a normal nine-to-five, I just took a few days off because well, everything. Oh, er, I don’t make a ton of money off it or anything-- but I do have a side gig with the bots where we record audio commentary tracks to sync with movies and sell them online sometimes...”

“Yeah, yeah, Mike’s professional life is boring and unfulfilling. _Stranger_ _Things_ time!” said Tom enthusiastically. The viewing had clearly been his idea.

The bots quickly brought up the Netflix website. It went by rather quickly, but he thought he caught a glimpse of his bots on the menu screen.

“Yes, we’re on here too, but _Stranger Things_ ,” insisted Servo.

Apparently the biggest modern day cinematic  trends were just cashing in on nostalgia for the film making trends of the 80s, which were still pretty fresh in Joel’s memory. They were just _trends._ Still, it was a very well crafted, if pretty blatantly deretitive, show, having sort of a cinematic pace to it that felt more like watching multiple parts of a (good) movie. And the child actors were nothing short of spectacular, far beyond most kid actors he could remember in something contemporary for him. He found himself really engrossed in the story, and before he knew it hours had passed and he was four episodes deep into the saga.

Despite the fact everyone was thoroughly enjoying the movie… er, show, that was, it didn’t mean they weren’t throwing riffs out. At a certain point the riffs were admonishing the characters for decisions they hadn’t made yet.

“How many times have you guys watched this?” asked Joel.

“This is like our sixth or seventh run through,”  said Servo.

“It mostly holds up though,” said Crow. “Well all except season two episode seven.”

“Shhh. We don’t talk about that,” hissed Servo.

Joel found himself watching Mike again. Mike fell into a natural rhythm riffing with the bots, although his style was a little bit different than Joel’s. While Joel tended to use his deadpan inflection against the bots’ more caustic tones for the sake of comedy, Mike opted to be more obviously sarcastic—and instead of taking time to explain things to the bots, the bots seemed to deign to make fun of him, treating Mike as the one in need of an education instead. Joel found it surprisingly easy to gel with with him though, and bounce off his delivery. When he was throwing riffs that was, Joel was still pretty absorbed in the show even if everyone else was already familiar with it.

He was caught off guard when even Gypsum threw a few riffs.

“She got better at this over the years,” said Crow, cluing into to Joel’s watchful expression.

“Hey you try it with half your processing power going towards the ship’s higher functions,” she said. “The update I got was the best thing that ever happened to my ability to multitask.”

As the show went on Joel was thoroughly enjoying himself, and for the first time all day, felt mostly relaxed. He wanted to keep watching, wanting to find out if they ever reached little Will Byers in his moment of need. But despite the chatter around him and the gripping plot, sleepless nights in a hospital full of constant noises like bleeps and bloops caught up to him. And he felt himself drift off…

When Joel was a kid he mastered the art of pretending to be asleep. He did it when he heard his parents stirring around the house on a weekend when they might be assigning out chores. When he got older he did it to his college boyfriend when he didn’t want to leave the warm feeling of him cuddled against his skin just yet. He did it to the bots when he just needed a few more minutes before experiment day began. So when he heard a voice he placed as Tom Servo (now with a new voice chip) mutter “wow he’s really out huh?” it was almost instinct just to clench his eyes shut.

“Yeah,” it was Mike’s voice, responding to Tom probably. “Try not to wake him up. I don’t think he’s been sleeping that well.”

“He never sleeps well,” put in Crow. “But it is kind of nice seeing him all peaceful like this.”

“Is that why you always try to watch us sleep?” asked Mike.

“No. We do that because you tell us not to do it. You can’t place a challenge like that in front of us and expect us not to take it… also because it gets a great reaction out of all of you. You should see Jonah’s face sometime when we wake him up.”

“Absolutely 100 percent hilarious every time,” agreed Tom. “Remember when we woke him up the time he spent New Year’s over… I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone jump that high.”  

“If he had an athletic bone in his body I would say he missed a calling as a basketball player,” agreed Crow.

“I’m literally right here,” an additional voice, Jonah he realized. “And you would jump that high too if someone set off seventeen confetti noise makers in your face.”

“Debatable,” said Tom.

They were quiet for a moment.

“Mike?” asked Crow. “He’s… he is going to be okay right? This was just… a weird fluke?”

“I don’t know,” said Mike. “I really don’t…”

“Oh,” said Servo. He heard the familiar sound of the robot beginning to sob. Joel was about to make his awareness know at this point, instinctively wanting to comfort the bot. But not a second later, before he even tried opening his eyes, he heard Mike’s voice again and the sobbing seemed to be tempered.

“Hey, hey,” Mike’s voice said calmingly. “We’re here for him. We can’t—I can’t—make any promises. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to try, okay? We’re all into this together.”

“I mean I’m not going to argue with that,” said Gypsum. “but Joel’s doctor doesn’t seem to like us very much.”

“I’ll work on that,” said Mike.

“But Miiiikkkke,” this time it was Crow whining. “When you work on things you make things go wrong.”

“All I’m going to do is talk to an administrator about the fact she’s been giving you guys a hard time from the beginning and that she stressed him out the first night—stressed us all out the first night.  Although I guess we should talk to Joel about it first...if he doesn’t want things upended anymore than they already are and all than I get it. We’ll just deal with it.”

“He still doesn’t know a lot about his life post like ‘93 yet,” said Crow. “Or any of it really.”

“Yeah…” Mike’s voice trailed off. “We’ll tell him eventually. He has a right to know…”

“You okay?” asked Jonah.

“Yeah,” said Mike. “I was just thinking about the irony of the fact that I _wish_ I forgot about what it felt like the day I came home in 2015 and everyone was just…”

No one said anything. Joel had no context for what he was referring to, but it was obviously significant because the silence seemed to indicate they all instantly knew.

”It’s his right to know… just some things are going to be harder for him than others. Literally nothing about this will be easy.”

“I mean...we’re not really good at doing easy,” said Crow.

“Years and years of over complicating everything we do for the sake of being contrarian, and proudly at that,” declared Servo.

“And I mean we are good at keeping you humans sane,” said Crow. “Sometimes. Jury’s still out for you, Mike. Jonah, there’s an argument to be made you were never sane. Actually… I kind of forgot where I was going with this. But if Joel needs us this is kind of what we’re best at…”

There was another pause.

“Hey,” it was Mike talking again. “We sent Waverly to distribute that giant stack of surplus Get Well hot dishes like half an hour ago to the nursing staff. Can you guys go check on him… uh Jonah, go with them to make sure they don’t bully him any worse than they usually do.”

Joel heard a chorus of agreements and the sounds of robots shuffling out of the room. Then he felt his hair being petted. It was an odd sensation, mainly because it reminded him he had less hair.

“You’re going to be okay,” whispered Mike. “I promise you will be. I love you. So much. You’re the strongest person I know when it comes to overcoming stuff and just… you’re going to get through this. Love you.”

Mike kept sweeping his hair, and Joel saw this as good as anytime to “wake up”. He probably oversold it, making a show of yawn and stretching his arms out (almost accidentally hitting Mike in the face as he did).

“Uh sorry,” he said.

“Don’t worry about it, you needed the nap. Uh, you kind of missed your window to talk with your therapist today. It’s kind of late and you were out for a few hours. But you know… considering, are you… alright?”

Joel thought about that for a second. Physically, he still felt fine despite the morning’s events. Mentally there was still a lot to deal with. But once again he was reminded of his support system. Of the bots. Of everything Mike was doing for him.

“Yeah,” said Joel sleepily. “Never better.”

Weirdly looking up at Mike’s smile at that, the statement felt at least partially true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you Speccy for beta-ing. I lost track of how many times I’ve rewritten this chapter from ground up, but it’s done now and ready to be posted. The next chapter is already going a lot more smoothly. Thanks everyone for being patient with me. There will be more soon (ish).


End file.
